Kentucky braces for more rain as death toll rises, historic McKinney Fire: 5 Things podcast

On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: Kentucky braces for more rain, death toll rises to 28

Severe flooding continues to devastate the state. Plus, Supreme Court correspondent John Fritze explains the high court's latest gun ruling, a wildfire burns out of control near the California-Oregon line, education reporter Chris Quintana looks at the near future of student loans and a ruling is expected for Deshaun Watson in his disciplinary case amid sexual misconduct allegations.

Podcasts: True crime, in-depth interviews and more USA TODAY podcasts right here.

Hit play on the player above to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript below. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.

Taylor Wilson:

Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson and this is 5 Things you need to know Monday, the 1st of August, 2022. Today, more rain on the way as 28 are now dead in Kentucky flooding. Plus, the Supreme Court's latest say on guns, and more.

Taylor Wilson:

Here are some of the top headlines:

1. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is off to Asia, but there's still no mention of whether she'll make a controversial stop in Taiwan. She and a congressional delegation have confirmed they'll visit Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan.

2. A co-pilot in North Carolina has mysteriously died after exiting a plane and falling 3,500 feet. The other pilot made an emergency landing, reporting that one of the wheels had come off the landing gear.

3. And Bill Russell has died. The NBA legend won 11 championships with the Boston Celtics and was a voice for social justice. He was 88.

♦

28 people are now dead in devastating flooding throughout Eastern Kentucky, and that number is expected to keep rising. Dozens of people are still unaccounted for and flooding has caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage. Many areas are still unreachable with power and cell service issues. The hardest hit parts of the state got nearly a foot of rain late last week. The North Fork of the Kentucky River crested a record 43 and a half feet in Jackson, according to the National Weather Service. A dozen shelters for flood victims across the state drew nearly 400 people yesterday and more than 1,200 rescues have taken place. Still, more Kentuckians narrowly escaped while losing almost everything. Hubert Thomas and his nephew Harvey Thomas survived and saved their dog CJ, but they lost everything else.

Hubert Thomas:

I had my [inaudible] saved him. I ain't got nothing. I've got nothing now. We ain't never had a flood like this. Some people say it hit one biggest flood of '57, but being honest with you, flood of '57 couldn't be as bad is this.

Harvey Thomas:

I lay down and he gets me up at, what, 2:30, 3 o'clock. And it's getting pretty close to inside the home, but it's not inside yet but within an hour it was coming inside and it getting worse. There was one point we looked out the front door and mine and his cars was playing bumper cars, like bumper boats, in the middle of our front yard. I don't know even where to start, what to do, where to go. Just a lot for, I guess, people around here to take in. It's worse than anything we've ever seen. Probably one of the worst disasters around here, probably in history I'd say.

Yeah, but we try to be thankful that we still have one other, because there was several families that wasn't that fortunate. The death toll keeps rising and just try to keep in the back of your mind that it could've always been worse.

And people are strong, and like I said, it's not going to be tomorrow, probably not next month, but I think everybody's going to be okay. It's just going to be a long process.

Taylor Wilson:

The National Weather Service warned that additional runoff from showers and thunderstorms yesterday and today could cause more rivers and creeks to flood. And rainfall rates of up to two inches an hour could cause flash flooding. That also won't be the end of it. Thunderstorms are possible tomorrow, and then again Thursday through Saturday.

♦

A Supreme Court decision has set a new standard for how lower courts will judge gun laws, and that's left uncertainty for what the Second Amendment allows. Supreme Court correspondent John Fritze has more with producer PJ Elliott.

John Fritze:

There were a bunch of blue states that had laws similar to the law in New York that the Supreme Court struck down, and that law required people to have a better than average reason to have a concealed carry permit. And so blue states are trying to limit the impact of that by doing things like increasing licensing requirements, by increasing training requirements. And in several states they are trying to create gun free zones in more places.

Now there's always been gun free zones in a lot of places, schools and so forth, but they're trying to really expand the kinds of places where you will not be allowed to carry a gun to public buildings, playgrounds. New York put Times Square on the list, hospitals, bars and restaurants. And so there's a number of states that are trying to say, "Look, you can get a permit, but we're going to severely limit where you can take a gun."

PJ Elliott:

What about the guns rights side of things? What are those groups doing?

John Fritze:

Yeah, I mean, they're very active here, too. You've got a bunch of groups that are filing lawsuits. I mean, one thing to know is that there were a bunch of lawsuits waiting around for this decision from the Supreme Court. There were several that were actually pending at the Supreme court, including bans on so-called assault style weapons. These are like the AR-15 and so forth. The advocates on both sides debate the terminology here a little bit, but they're essentially semi-automatic rifles. A number of states have banned those. There was litigation pending at the Supreme Court on that and other issues. And so what you see are these gun rights groups going in and saying, "All right, look, we've got this decision now from the Supreme Court, you got to deal with these other things."

And the reason why this is really important is that the Supreme Court didn't just invalidate this New York law, it also changed the way that lower courts have to look at other gun laws. It said that you have to have some sort of historical precedent for it, basically dating back to the nation's founding, and you can no longer consider or at least no longer place as much emphasis on a state saying, "Well, look, we've got a public safety reason for doing this." Those arguments are not going to be as persuasive in federal court as they were just a few years ago.

The thing is, is that it's a really unsettled space right now in the Second Amendment. I think this is something that both sides can agree on, and these two sides don't agree on much, that it's a little bit unclear what's going to happen. And in the vacuum of knowing what the law is, there really is this race on both sides of this debate to define what is going to be permissible and what's not.

♦

Taylor Wilson:

Firefighters today continue to battle a Northern California wildfire near Oregon state line, becoming the state's largest of the year. The McKinney Fire in the Klamath National Forest sparked Friday before quickly burning out of control. As of last night it was 0% contained, according to Cal Fire. The US Forest Service is warning that lightning in the area, gusty winds, high temperatures, and low relative humidity could all help continue spreading the fire. Governor Gavin Newsom has declared a state of emergency.

♦

The pause to student loan payments is nearing its end, but another extension or debt forgiveness could be on the table. Education reporter Chris Quintana gives PJ Elliot some details.

Chris Quintana:

Yeah, student loan payment pause is scheduled to end on August 31st and payments are expected to start in September. I say it's scheduled because all previous end dates for the student loan payment pause have been extended. And this has happened both under Biden and President Trump as well. I think there's some other things to consider in this space as well. We're near the midterms. One of the folks I just spoke to, a student loan expert, described it as political suicide to restart payments at this point.

But I also spoke with a group of student loan servicers, and they said that they've been told not to send out communications regarding repayment in September. So when you look at the clues here and there we can't speak with 100% certainty, but there seems to be some indication that we may see another extension.

PJ Elliott:

How much do the loans cost?

Chris Quintana:

There are some different figures out there, but if you look at what the Education Department has said about the cost in fiscal year 2021, I believe they said somewhere around $53 billion. And, and so when extrapolate that moving forward, there's another group that estimated the potential cost if the student loan payment pause was pushed through August 2023, they put that figure at about $200 billion. So it's a not insignificant amount of money at this point.

PJ Elliott:

What about the federal loans? Will those have to get paid back?

Chris Quintana:

I think that's the question on many borrowers minds, especially folks with debt loads around the 10,000 mark or near that area. I think it's hard to tell. The president had campaigned on forgiving up to $10,000 in student loan debt per borrower.

He has indicated in recent months that he was looking at that and he has suggested that there may be some kind of answer by the end of August. Whether or not that actually happens, it's hard to tell. That doesn't even speak to what may happen afterwards, if there are legal challenges or that unexpected circumstances that might come after.

Taylor Wilson:

For more from Chris, give him a follow on Twitter @CQuintanaDC.

♦

A ruling is expected today on what kind of punishment Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson deserves for violating the NFL's personal conduct policy amid more than two dozen allegations of sexual misconduct. A three-day disciplinary hearing that reviewed the findings of the NFL's year-plus long investigation ended on June 30th. The NFL had recommended an indefinite suspension of at least a year, though Watson never faced any criminal charges. Massage therapists have accused him of sexual misconduct and he faced civil lawsuits from 24 women, 20 of whom Watson reached financial settlements with.

Thanks for listening to 5 Things. You can find us seven mornings a week on whatever your favorite podcast app is. Thanks to PJ Elliott for his great work on the show, and I'm back tomorrow with more of 5 Things from USA TODAY.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: McKinney Fire out of control, Deshaun Watson ruling: 5 Things podcast